fandomhighdorms | Fourth floor common room: Tuesday afternoon

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Fourth floor common room: Tuesday afternoon

Karal was mostly over his cold, and completely sick of his room. He knew it was Christmas today, not that he really knew what that involved, but there was one Karsite tradition he was quite sure would fit.

Hot spiced cider.

There was a pot of it mulling on the stove, smelling of cinnamon and spices and all things yummy and if it was a teeny bit alcoholic, it was only enough to warm.

Karal was curled up on the couch with a mug of cider, reading, while Altra sprawled across the back of it. With the dorms as quiet as they were, he wasn't sure if there was anyone left, but he'd made enough cider for anyone who might wander by.

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"There's a stable here?" Ino asked curiously, "I didn't know that! But yes, that'd be perfect for my plants."

"There is. It's where my horse, Trenor lives," he explained. "Does your world have horses?" After meeting so many people who'd never met a horse, it was always best to check.

"Yeah, we do," Ino shrugged sheepishly, "there's not that much call for them if you're a ninja though, so I haven't seen many of them."

He nodded, then gave her a puzzled look. "What's a ninja?" he asked. "And you could come and meet Trenor, if you liked. It might help with the boredom."

"I'd like that, sure." Anything to stop the boredom, right? Ino blinked at him, "A ninja?" Most people she'd met already knew what one was, "Um, well, we're sneaky soldiers? That take on missions we're hired for." Trying to stick to things she was sure every world had, "We use our spiritual energy to perform techniques, and stuff."

"You could come down tomorrow morning," he offered, still looking puzzled. "You mean you're a mercenary fighter?"

"I'll be there," Ino promised.

"That's..." she looked dubious, "one way of putting it, I guess. Since we are hired out, and all." Ino crossed her arms, frowning, "I don't like the way that makes us sound, though."

"Oh, bright flame, no! I meant no insult, none at all!" he said quickly. "One of my teachers in Valdemar was the Captain of an entire mercenary company. If not for her taking the time to teach me, I'd likely not be alive. If not for her and her company, Valdemar would have fallen." He gave her a worried look. "I'm sorry if I gave any offence."

Ino still looked mildly perturbed, "It's alright, I've got a quick temper anyway. But, I mean, we're our own village you know? It's my family's tradition to be ninja. Calling us just mercenaries is kinda... almost, insulting? I don't know. We're ninja." Which, clearly, were far better than mercenaries.

"I truly am sorry," and he sounded it. "I guess I don't really understand what a ninja is. But there is no shame at all in being a mercenary," he added firmly. "They're honourable, they work hard, many are elite or specialist fighters who carefully choose who hires them. My world has a mercenary guild which sets down the rules and enforces them and the successful companies form towns of their own, and protect the people who live there. You cannot dismiss someone as less that you simply because they are a mercenary."

Ino's eyebrows knit as he described what his world's mercenaries were like. "Lot more organized than ours," she observed, "our's aren't anything so fancy. More like bandits. Yours sound... closer to what a ninja is."

"There are bandits who style themselves as mercenaries, but they're liars and usually thieves. The Guild deals with the ones they find out about," he explained. "But the mercenaries who are actually part of the Guild follow a code. I've seen a copy of it, and it's quite detailed."

"A code? For like, how they're supposed to behave?"

"Exactly, and when they can sever their contracts and how, and how they're to treat enemy soldiers and guild mercenaries they fight against, and civilians, and the internal rules for a Company." He shrugged. "It covers, well, everything, really."

Edited 2007-12-25 22:53 (UTC)

Okay, maybe not so much like back home. "It's mostly, back home, accomplish the mission as efficiently as possible, and come back alive." She shrugged, "Any captured enemy is turned over to ANBU for interrogation as a matter of course." Or killed. "But none of my missions have had that happen yet."

"That's very important on my world as well," he said with a small smile. "Stay alive is, I think, the foremost rule. Is ANBU like a Guild?"

"Erm. Not really. They're a subdivision of higher ranked ninja who handle all the really dirty work. Like torture and interrogation." She pursed her lips, "Assassinations too. They're our dark side, really." Never mind that with her particular skills it was also the most likely place she’d wind up – if she progressed in rank enough to be considered eligible.

"Oh." Karal swallowed, disturbed but doing his best to hide it. "What made you decide to come here from there?"

Ino eyed him steadily, before answering his obvious change in subject. "I wasn't on speaking terms with my team for a while. So I wanted to go somewhere far away from them." She rolled her eyes, "This counts, don't you think? Way in the future of some other universe is pretty far away."

He smiled wryly, acknowledging that he'd changed the subject. "I'm not sure you can get any further away than Fandom, from anywhere."

"Which made it perfect," Ino grinned, "we worked some of it out when they came to visit me on Parent's Weekend, so now I'm just... here." She shrugged, "Don't want to go back until I'm strong enough that they won't ever leave me behind again."

"What kinda world is yours?" She asked curiously.

"Very different from here. It," he tilted his head, thinking, "it would seem like it was from very far in this world's past, except it has magic. The world does not even have a collective name for itself, or electricity, or, well, much of anything you can find here."

"What kind of magic?" She asked curiously, "My world doesn't use magic."

"There are two kinds, though only one is true magic," he explained. "There's mind-magic, Gifts, which are abilities that come from inside the person, and true magic, which can only be wielded by someone who has the mage gift, and that involves manipulating energy from the world around them."

"Mind-magic? ... like possession, or something else entirely?" She tugged her hair, as she considered his explanation.

Fourth floor common room: Tuesday afternoon

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